In German society, the situation is more equitable than many complaints about insufficient redistribution sometimes suggest. This is shown by a study conducted by the German Economic Institute (IW) on behalf of the Foundation for Family Businesses. The economists have calculated an „international fairness index“ based on data from the OECD, the World Bank and Eurostat as well as a representative survey of 3,300 people. Germany ranks 10th out of 34 developed countries, with the USA, Japan and Turkey far behind.

The authors of the study expressly point out that the perception of justice depends in many respects on personal preferences, and that various forms of justice play a role. Nevertheless, in order to create an index that is as objective as possible, the authors compared 43 individual indicators in six categories according to needs-based, regulatory, performance-based, opportunity-based, income-based and intergenerational justice.

In a survey, 87% of participants stated that, of the various forms of justice, regulatory justice was the most important to them. Equal opportunities ranked second with 81%, followed by intergenerational justice with 79%. The sentence „A society is fair if people who work hard earn more than others“, in other words performance-based fairness, was agreed by 74%, followed by needs-based fairness with 68%, according to which a society is fair if it takes special care of the weak and needy.

However, only just under 49% agreed with the desire for the most equal possible distribution of income and wealth, which is the debate that plays the biggest role in current social policy under the heading of „redistribution“ and which stands for an ever higher state quota and rising social expenditure.

The term „needs-based justice“ refers to the fulfilment of basic human needs regardless of income; income-based justice refers to the question of equal distribution of income and burdens.

Interestingly, Germany ranks 9th in the comparison of countries in terms of needs-based and intergenerational justice, higher than in the overall ranking, thus in those areas that are seen as particularly critical in the discourse. On the other hand, it only achieved 18th and 17th place respectively for fairness of benefits and fairness of rules, although they are particularly important to citizens. Only income justice (21st place) is even worse, which possibly corresponds with the insufficient performance justice.

According to the authors, the bottom line of the study is that more should be invested in education overall, as this not only increases equality of opportunity, but also ensures equality of performance and income.